Trevor - Dublin Technical Intern
Summer 2003

Can you tell us a little bit about you?

I'm from Drogheda, a town 40km north of Dublin. I studied computer applications, specialising in computer science, at Dublin City University. My current role is software engineer in IBM's Dublin Software Lab. I'm working on Lotus Learning, the e-learning component of Lotus Workplace.

Why did you apply for the Extreme Blue internship?

I wanted to spend my summer doing something relevant to my future career; I came across Extreme Blue on IBM's Web site and took notice when I saw it was being run in Dublin that year for the first time. The Extreme Blue Web site was, as you'd expect, full of the usual glowing reports, but looking past those it was clear that IBM wanted to differentiate their internship from everybody else's. Why? The reason seemed to be that they had work for their interns, which the interns would be expected to complete themselves, with help, but without out hand-holding, from experienced staff. This, above all else, caught my eye. It was unlike anything else available in Ireland - and possibly anywhere else, too.

How do you think your background and experience prepared you for the internship?

It prepared me up to a point; I knew some Java, algorithms and technologies like XML. Armed with this basic knowledge I could approach the problem with some confidence. However, I wasn't really prepared for the research and advanced programming techniques which we needed to implement the project specification. I was learning the whole time I was here, be it asynchonous programming or division of work. Frankly, I don't think many college graduates (in my case I hadn't even yet graduated) would be prepared. Of course, without programmes like Extreme Blue where would we get the experience?

What have you learned from your Extreme Blue experience?

First, the tech bit: the moment I returned to my final year of college, I knew my knowledge of Java had tripled. It exposed me to new techniques and allowed me to combine those with some of my own. Just as crucially from a technical perspective, our investigations into appropriate technologies for our project, e.g. XML, SIP, components of J2EE such as JAXRPC, honed my decision-making processes. An invaluable skill in an industry where technologies come and go, and a skill that will stand the test of time.

With regards to "soft skills", team work and public speaking are essential for a successful Extreme Blue project. Unlike university, the project is much too complex for 1 person alone to tackle. Once your project is complete you must present (or "sell") it to senior IBM executives. This isn't like showing off to your parents; it's a tough, unforgiving, audience with whom you have only 10 minutes to make an impression. Presenting my university projects seemed a bit pedestrian after all that.

Our major achievement came to light some months after Extreme Blue ended. IBM contacted me with regards to a patent we had applied for, which was about to be filed.

Is there anything about the Extreme Blue program that surprised you?

I was most impressed with the freedom we were given to implement a solution, as mentioned earlier. Furthermore, I was impressed with the support we got from our mentors and manager. While we were expected to overcome all the technical obstacles ourselves, they used their own experience to point us in the right direction and introduced us to other relevant departments within IBM. It takes some time to assimilate just how large IBM is, but the real surprise is how accessible and helpful its people are - within weeks of our arrival we were conversing with experts from the UK, Israel, US and Japan!

Would you recommend the program to other students and why?

I would happily recommend the program to other students. In fact, I've already recommended it to several of my friends who will be graduating next summer. As an introductory learning experience to the world of commercial software development, I think it is unmatched. I would warn applicants that it will be a long summer: Long days with the occasional disappointment along the way. But this is tempered by a chance to work with brand new technologies and with very talented people. Did I mention that it's also the biggest IT company in the world, bar none, affording you an insight into how the (really) big players do business? No true techie could refuse that opportunity!